Callaway MAVRIK Irons

[NativeTxn]

Just got notice that the Mavriks I ordered at my fitting last Friday (9/4) should arrive at the store today and UPS tracking shows it out for delivery. If accurate, that is some pretty strong turnaround given the backlog that OEMs have going on right now. Hopefully it's true, so I can get to hitting them!

Update: they are indeed in, as I got a call that they’d arrived and were ready for pickup. I’ll go grab them later and see if I can hit them. I’m sure that since they’re new, custom ordered I won’t be able to get the ball off the ground, but here’s to hoping that’s not the case.

 

[clarkgriswold]

So I have gotten about 3 more rounds in since my last update and using with the CSX ball has unlocked another gear for me. Scoring has been better and I have been holding more greens. Ball flight and spin has been excellent, still trying to get adjusted to the new flight patterns. I’ve always had an extreme fade with high spin and just played to that. Now that I have a lower ball flight and much straighter ball flight I’ve missed a lot of greens long and left, now that I’ve made those adjustments I’m finding a lot more options. I’ve been clubing up and choking down on some approaches and it’s given me more options especially with the windy day’s we’ve been having. I don’t have to worry so much about my flight, just the distance. Now we I would really like to see the expansion of the AI series of clubs moving forward is a blended set. For me the 5-8/9 slots have been amazing, consistent ball flight and forgiveness has made a serious difference for me. I have had some challenges with the short irons, with distance and ground interaction. This really isn’t the clubs fault it’s more likely do to my steep attack, and I’ve just felt more confident in the Jaws wedges, which seems counter intuitive to mid-high handicap but it’s what works for me. If the Mavrik or whatever the next version can evolve to have blended set options and forged while retaining its forgiveness it will be amazing. I’m not sure it’s possible given the way the newer tech gaps but I could see rather than 3 options of unique sets, there would be two unique sets standard/pro. And then instead of a 3rd line there could be a blended set with adjusted lofts for those that want the forgiveness in the longer irons while having the pro version in the short irons. Either way I couldn’t be happier with the performance I’ve seen out of them so far and my rounds are far more consistent and better than they have ever been.

 

[zbeekner4]

Just got notice that the Mavriks I ordered at my fitting last Friday (9/4) should arrive at the store today and UPS tracking shows it out for delivery. If accurate, that is some pretty strong turnaround given the backlog that OEMs have going on right now. Hopefully it's true, so I can get to hitting them!

Update: they are indeed in, as I got a call that they’d arrived and were ready for pickup. I’ll go grab them later and see if I can hit them. I’m sure that since they’re new, custom ordered I won’t be able to get the ball off the ground, but here’s to hoping that’s not the case.

Welllllll what do you think!?!?!?

 

[NativeTxn]

Welllllll what do you think!?!?!?

I've only had a chance to hit them twice indoors so far, but I definitely like them from the limited sample size. I feel like I'm going to enjoy the graphite shafts. Helps get a little extra speed for me, and I've felt no soreness in my elbows after the two sessions off the mats. With my F9s, it was never terrible, but from time to time, I would feel some soreness in my elbow(s) when I hit off of mats. So, hopefully the graphite does absorb some of the vibrations. And according to the launch monitors, when I've connected a solid strike, it's absolutely crushed it for me compared to my Cobras.

I'm not sure I'll be able to get in a round this weekend, but I've got a lesson Saturday, and I am going to at least try to get to the range on Sunday. If I can't get a round in this weekend, I'm hoping to get in at least 9 after work on Tuesday.

So far, it's a small sample size, but I think I'm going to enjoy them. Cobras are definitely on the chopping block and up for sale - no concern about not getting on with the Mavriks such that I feel a desire to hang on to the Cobras.

 

[jpbova]

The lofts. I can’t get over the lofts. Right now the 8 iron is stronger than my 7. Crazy. The mav pro lofts seem to have the sweet spot in between jacked and too jacked. How is the forgiveness on the mav pro and mav irons? The price point is really tempting to sell my i210 and get these

 

[McLovin]

The lofts. I can’t get over the lofts. Right now the 8 iron is stronger than my 7. Crazy. The mav pro lofts seem to have the sweet spot in between jacked and too jacked. How is the forgiveness on the mav pro and mav irons? The price point is really tempting to sell my i210 and get these

the mavs are stupid forgiving. like, illegally forgiving. it’s kind of amazing.

the mav pros are definitely forgiving, but they still demand a decent strike to get everything out of them. on the course my misses are small unless it’s something extreme. i would say for their size, the mav pros provide more forgiveness than you might expect. if there’s a knock for someone like i am, it’s that they can be low launch and low spin. i’m working on my swing with my coach and that’s getting better. but for me they don’t offer much help there.

 

[jpbova]

the mavs are stupid forgiving. like, illegally forgiving. it’s kind of amazing.

the mav pros are definitely forgiving, but they still demand a decent strike to get everything out of them. on the course my misses are small unless it’s something extreme. i would say for their size, the mav pros provide more forgiveness than you might expect. if there’s a knock for someone like i am, it’s that they can be low launch and low spin. i’m working on my swing with my coach and that’s getting better. but for me they don’t offer much help there.

good to know. I am high launch high spin, and the only reason I am looking is reduce that. I am getting my i210s reshafted to bring launch and spin down (nippon modus 105 to PX 6), and I don't want to give up on them, but if I do it will be a hard choice between Mav/Mav pro and the new JPX line.

i already hit a 7 iron 170 at over 7K RPMs. I don't need/want it to carry anymore than 180. If I got the mavs, I would have to put a fourth Vokey in the bag and pull my 4 hybrid

 

[McLovin]

good to know. I am high launch high spin, and the only reason I am looking is reduce that. I am getting my i210s reshafted to bring launch and spin down (nippon modus 105 to PX 6), and I don't want to give up on them, but if I do it will be a hard choice between Mav/Mav pro and the new JPX line.

i already hit a 7 iron 170 at over 7K RPMs. I don't need/want it to carry anymore than 180. If I got the mavs, I would have to put a fourth Vokey in the bag and pull my 4 hybrid

have you seen the mav standard irons in person? they are not small. if your 7i is 170 with that much spin, i have a feeling the mav standard may push 190, mav pro probably 180 (at least).

 

[NativeTxn]

have you seen the mav standard irons in person? they are not small. if your 7i is 170 with that much spin, i have a feeling the mav standard may push 190, mav pro probably 180 (at least).

Everyone is different, obviously, but I just got my custom set of standard Mavriks (Tensei silver R flex graphite shafts) to replace the stock set of Cobra F9s (KBS Tour 90 R flex steel shafts) I had been gaming recently. I am not a high swing speed player, but I can usually put a good strike on it a majority of the time.

The 7 iron lofts are 29.5 on the Cobra and 28.5 on the Marvrik. In the limited testing I've done between the fitting and the couple of times I've been able to hit the Mavriks since they came in this Thursday, I've picked up about 10-12 yards of carry on a pretty consistent basis compared to the Cobra. Now, a decent amount of that is the shaft - lighter, so my swing speed is a few MPH faster on average and it's kick point and all of that good stuff works better with my specific swing (which is why he put me in that shaft). But, on the swings during my fitting where the club head speed was the same/within 1 MPH, the ball speed on the Mavriks were still consistently 3-5 MPH faster than the Cobras, which also accounted for increased distance.

But, my point is that the Mavrik lofts aren't all that far off from the Cobras I'm coming from (Most are within 0.5 - 1 degree stronger depending on the club, though a couple are as much as 2 degrees stronger) and it seems that they've done a pretty solid job of providing longer distance and higher ball speed without making it a 2-3 club difference.

Obviously, YMMV, and I agree with McLovin that they are not small. They've got a thick (though not the thickest I've seen) top line and a pretty good amount of offset. So, if either of those bother you, just be aware.

The other thing I'll note is that the way they've done the lofts, it takes 8 clubs to get from 5 iron to the Mavrik with 50* of loft; whereas, for example, the JPX921 HMP that I tested (and was in second place as I hit them almost as well as the Mavs) bridge that divide using 7 clubs. I almost went with the HMPs, in part for that reason, but the numbers (particularly spin and descent angle) on the Mavriks were enough better to justify going with them over the HMPs (even though the HMPs were the better looking club at address).

 

[jpbova]

have you seen the mav standard irons in person? they are not small. if your 7i is 170 with that much spin, i have a feeling the mav standard may push 190, mav pro probably 180 (at least).

At 27* 7i that’s 1* weaker than my 5i. If spin reduction was below 6k, 190 yards would be easy. As I am sitting here thinking about this, and this shouldn’t be a revelation by any means, And maybe I am justifying new clubs. However, the longer the club, the higher the likelihood for poor delivery. It is surprising to me that loft jacking is frowned upon and more companies aren’t doing it in all or most of their clubs. It just seems like the game would be easier.

I actually went to GG today to look at them. I thought they weren’t too big, weren’t too compact either. They looked nice. I could easily go 6-PW and slide another vokey in and keep my 4h, or go 5-pw and sell my 4h.

 

[McLovin]

At 27* 7i that’s 1* weaker than my 5i. If spin reduction was below 6k, 190 yards would be easy. As I am sitting here thinking about this, and this shouldn’t be a revelation by any means, And maybe I am justifying new clubs. However, the longer the club, the higher the likelihood for poor delivery. It is surprising to me that loft jacking is frowned upon and more companies aren’t doing it in all or most of their clubs. It just seems like the game would be easier.

I actually went to GG today to look at them. I thought they weren’t too big, weren’t too compact either. They looked nice. I could easily go 6-PW and slide another vokey in and keep my 4h, or go 5-pw and sell my 4h.

if you end up testing them, let us know how it goes!

 

[jpbova]

if you end up testing them, let us know how it goes!

you motivated me to go hit them.

Wow. Great clubs. I hit mav and mav pro. Sound, feel, distance, spin reduction all really good. They are loud, but I don’t mind it, and I like it even. (My favorite sounding driver was the original CC launcher). Didn’t take me long to get used to them. 2 swings and I was hitting them solid. Impressive for the shaft I was playing. I did notice they were launching really high. Which is fine and may have to do with the shafts. The most impressive thing were how forgiving both models were. the std. mav. was one of the most forgiving clubs I have ever hit. Everything came off the club solid, and they wanted to turn over.

my only gripe is distance control I hit one over 200 carry really trying to shallow it out, and it seemed every couple shots I hit a hot one that flew over 190. The mav pros were better for this, and not a deal breaker by any means.

mavrik std w/ elevate 95 stiff
Carry - 185-190
Spin - 5500

mav pro w/ elevate 95 stiff
Carry - 180
Spin - 6k

I’m going to get my i210s reshafted. But if that doesn’t work, I will switch to the mavs. I think mav + a $-taper to help the tempo a bit would be a tough club to beat

 

[McLovin]

you motivated me to go hit them.

Wow. Great clubs. I hit mav and mav pro. Sound, feel, distance, spin reduction all really good. They are loud, but I don’t mind it, and I like it even. (My favorite sounding driver was the original CC launcher). Didn’t take me long to get used to them. 2 swings and I was hitting them solid. Impressive for the shaft I was playing. I did notice they were launching really high. Which is fine and may have to do with the shafts. The most impressive thing were how forgiving both models were. the std. mav. was one of the most forgiving clubs I have ever hit. Everything came off the club solid, and they wanted to turn over.

my only gripe is distance control I hit one over 200 carry really trying to shallow it out, and it seemed every couple shots I hit a hot one that flew over 190. The mav pros were better for this, and not a deal breaker by any means.

mavrik std w/ elevate 95 stiff
Carry - 185-190
Spin - 5500

mav pro w/ elevate 95 stiff
Carry - 180
Spin - 6k

I’m going to get my i210s reshafted. But if that doesn’t work, I will switch to the mavs. I think mav + a $-taper to help the tempo a bit would be a tough club to beat

awesome feedback!!! so was it the 7i you were hitting? those are really solid numbers. and i agree the mav pro still has forgiveness for its profile. glad you enjoyed both. i’ve been having an absolute blast with my mav pros this year.

 

[jpbova]

awesome feedback!!! so was it the 7i you were hitting? those are really solid numbers. and i agree the mav pro still has forgiveness for its profile. glad you enjoyed both. i’ve been having an absolute blast with my mav pros this year.

Yes, 7i. The distance is there. it was a good 20 yards longer, and the dispersion (east west) was excellent. Everything drew beautifully. i210s are on a short leash. They are going to the bench if they don't start putting out

 

[Franklin51]

Hit the Pro version Friday. Got good results but couldn’t get past the sound


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[McLovin]

Hit the Pro version Friday. Got good results but couldn’t get past the sound


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i’m assuming you play a forged iron? i hit the mav pro side by side with apex pro. apex pro was a ton softer, but i still really enjoyed the mav pro and still am enjoying them 10 months later. i don’t find the feel clicky except maybe a bit toe side. everywhere feels really powerful and solid to me.

 

[zbeekner4]

The lofts. I can’t get over the lofts. Right now the 8 iron is stronger than my 7. Crazy. The mav pro lofts seem to have the sweet spot in between jacked and too jacked. How is the forgiveness on the mav pro and mav irons? The price point is really tempting to sell my i210 and get these

If the distance is really the issue, grab the set AW, and pay less attention to the numbers on the bottom. We had a few guys do that and found it easier to pair the clubs with wedges. I’m still considering throwing in the AW myself just because it’ll be that much more forgiving than the jaws muscle back wedge.

 

[thewilderside]

Maybe I need to hit the Mav Pro's again. 5-PW in Project X 6.5 (which I was fitted into at my most recent Mizuno Shaft Optimizer session), at my specs (+1", 2* up), in Very Good condition for $660 on Callaway Pre-owned....

 

[tahoebum]

But why stop there? You can have the whole gang for just a few more bucks

They don't suit my eye as well as my Z765 irons, lol. I owned a set of Callaway XR Pro irons for a year or so and they were long but I definitely couldn't control the distance or shape shots as well as my Srixon's. I love buying new putters and wedges but a new set of irons really doesn't excite me in the least. It's rare that I don't get at least 5 years out of a set of irons and I'm only on my 6th set since 1981.

 

[NativeTxn]

So, I played my first round with the Mavriks today (actually only able to get in 16 holes before I had to meet the wife for dinner). Hit some god awful shots (mostly with the non-Mavrik clubs in my bag) and some excellent shots, including the one in the picture that was my tee shot on a 144 yard par 3 that stopped about 3 feet from the hole (made the birdie putt, BTW).

.

What I'm not so jazzed about is the apparent durability (or possible lack thereof) of the irons. Other than the 5, 7, and 9-iron, none of the other irons had been hit until today (and the 5, 7, and 9 had only been hit indoors off of mats - though I had already noticed some "swirly" type marks on them after hitting on the mats, so what I'm about to type maybe shouldn't have come as a huge surprise).

In any event, I was riding, had my cart bag strapped in like usual, and I noticed after about 3 holes what appeared to be heavy amounts of bag chatter.


I hit maybe 2-3 shots the whole round with the Gap, all from grassy lies either fairway or some rough, but no sand, no rocks, nothing that would seem to suggest scuffing, scraping, etc. and it looks like that now.

I hit one shot the entire round with the PW - it was from a dry dirt lie, but there were no rocks or other debris (I checked before hand to make sure), and it's got these scrapes on it...



The AW literally never left the bag, hasn't been hit once in any capacity, and it looks like this...





Maybe I'm overreacting here, but I just don't think an iron should look this banged up having literally never hit a ball on any surface, and having spent one round in the cart.

I've cleaned all of them with soap and water and scrubbed as much as possible with a washcloth, but they pretty much all look like the GW pictured above, it seems mostly from bouncing around in the cart and banging into each other. And I certainly wouldn't expect scuffs like on the PW simply from a packed, dry dirt lie - I've hit irons before that hit small rocks and didn't have gouges or any dings from the rocks, let alone scuffs like on the PW that only hit the dry dirt.

Now look, I realize that golf clubs are tools and we hit them at high(ish) speeds into the ground and things like that and they're going to get marks and nicks and dings, but my expectation would be that that would happen over time. I honestly wasn't expecting a brand new set of irons to show this much wear after one round in the cart.

The faces of the clubs cleaned up just fine, and are no worse for the wear. But, I have a 15-year old set of Mizuno MX-19s that don't have this level of bag chatter and scuffs on them, and those things have been played much more, with no inhibition about hitting from bad lies with small rocks and debris likely in the way, etc. I definitely didn't expect such wear from one round in the cart and them bumping into each other like they have exhibited.

Has anyone else experienced that with their Mavrik irons? Or am I just the lucky one here?

Should I show my fitter these pics (or bring the clubs in for him to take a look at in person) to see if this is normal in his experience - because I certainly haven't seen or played as many clubs as probably most on here, but comparing to my old Mizuno MX-19s and the Cobra F9s I had for a couple of months and played more that with these so far and didn't look nearly as beat up, but this just doesn't seem like it should happen. Again, maybe I'm overreacting, but any thoughts would be appreciated.

For comparison, here are the Cobras I just sold and had banged around in the same cart bag on the same course as the Callaway was used on tonight, and had been used at the range multiple times. The wear on them seems to be far less than the Callaway (the dark line on the 8 was mat residue that I wiped off after the picture was taken).



And here's a pic of the old Mizunos I was referencing that have been used many times more than the Callaway and hit from all sorts of tough lies. Certainly some wear on them, but still seems less than the Callaway after one round.

 

[shantis]

Today I did an iron fitting at Club Champion. For my game, the Mavrik Max was the clear winner. Second was Big Bertha. Going in, the BB21's were definitely something I could see potential along with the Mizuno HM. The Mizuno's didn't work out at all. The Max beat out the BB21 in dispersion for distance and left to right. The fitter's goal was to consistently reach the distance of my "good" strokes of my gamer irons. I thought he was being rather ambitious, as I'm an inconsistent ball striker. But the Max paired with the right shaft did exactly that. I had hit two "good" shots with my gamer out of roughly 10 at the start. With the Max, I hit roughly 5 out of 10 that distance. I thought it might be cause I was warming up with my gamer. But we went back and forth at the end of the fit, and the Max was still consistently better.

 

[McLovin]

Today I did an iron fitting at Club Champion. For my game, the Mavrik Max was the clear winner. Second was Big Bertha. Going in, the BB21's were definitely something I could see potential along with the Mizuno HM. The Mizuno's didn't work out at all. The Max beat out the BB21 in dispersion for distance and left to right. The fitter's goal was to consistently reach the distance of my "good" strokes of my gamer irons. I thought he was being rather ambitious, as I'm an inconsistent ball striker. But the Max paired with the right shaft did exactly that. I had hit two "good" shots with my gamer out of roughly 10 at the start. With the Max, I hit roughly 5 out of 10 that distance. I thought it might be cause I was warming up with my gamer. But we went back and forth at the end of the fit, and the Max was still consistently better.

that’s excellent! have fun with the new sticks.

 

[zbeekner4]

They don't suit my eye as well as my Z765 irons, lol. I owned a set of Callaway XR Pro irons for a year or so and they were long but I definitely couldn't control the distance or shape shots as well as my Srixon's. I love buying new putters and wedges but a new set of irons really doesn't excite me in the least. It's rare that I don't get at least 5 years out of a set of irons and I'm only on my 6th set since 1981.

My old Z765s were fantastic and I really liked them. The Mav Pros have really been a surprising upgrade. It did take a little getting used to but now I love them

 

[clarkgriswold]

A couple of more rounds and several range sessions in again with the Mav Standard over the last few weeks. I’ve been mainly focusing on the irons just to continue to work on my swing. The long irons have been such a help for me this year allowing me to be more agressive, score has been for more consistent from round to round. While I do still have the occasional stinker (for me) I look back through my round and almost all my bad shots are just tops trying to get after the ball to hard. And this is just the first iteration, I can’t wait to see how the Mavrik line evolves over time, hoping we one day see blended sets and forged options down the road.

 

[McLovin]

next time i’m on the range i’m going to snap pics of the faces. i’ve hit a TON of balls with these clubs over the last 10 months. and to my eye they’re in amazing condition still.